Every day the shuffled from the bedroom -- where they still slept in a double bed for morning cuddle sessions -- out to the living room and took up residence in their chairs for the day. Food was eaten there on tray tables. The TV was always on to CNN, and manner of SPORTS!!, all the Sunday politics programs and at night, Katie Couric followed by Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Of course they always read the paper, The New Yorker and had a book going, too for the quiet moments. Mom did the daily crossword from the NYTimes and would call her sister if she was done... just to gloat. Silly mommy.

So this past weekend I went down to the beach again, this time by my lonesome to gather up all the special things we're keeping and the rest went to good will. The movers were great. The Hitmen they called themselves. They were a great find through Google.

It just so happened that they finished loading their truck as I finished loading up a rented minivan. And the last things to leave the apartment were the chairs that Mom & Dad sat in for so many years and in their dying days. It was a poignant moment captured by my telephone cam.

So it's all done. Two lives cleared out and ready for the painters and carpeters to come in and do their thing.

And so on ...